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The Dumpster Brothers? Their last fucking name was Dumpster? Wild that that was just a common last name with no connection to trash for centuries
Look again, it actually says Dempster
Both words are used, so I understand the confusion; also, sprinkled with a little misspelling:
Dumpster: The Dempster Brorthers, Inc.
EDIT: Just read the Dumpster Wikipedia page. The Dempster Brothers’ had a truck called The Dempster Dumpmaster 😂
Ormagord, Sorper Morio Brorthers
On cold nights, we’d gather together around the Dempster fire and discuss how bad things were, we’d share drinks and bond as the we burned the garbage to stay warm on those cold nights. No one could turn away for those Dempster fires as they were amazing to watch. Yep Everyone loved watching those Dempster fires
Binster
Look again, it actually says Trumpster
Look again, it actually says Drumpster
Drumphster
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Wait until you learn about Thomas Crapper, who made major improvements to the modern toilet.
And his name wasn’t the origin of the word crap. It was just destiny!
Nominative determinism!
It’s kind of indicative that the courts have bent to corporations on not generciding names for nearly 60 years. How long have dumpsters been so ubiquitous that no one even knew it was a brand? Very Berenstain Bears situation.
I agree. If dump was a word before (I’ll have to check), then dumpster is a simple modification.
Zoom was actually a word before 2011
Not with that meaning but yes, poor terminology on the visual since it implies it was not.
I suppose the title “brand names that became common words” implies that it was a brandname before being a common word, otherwise the reader should pretty much never assume that.
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Trademarks are context sensitive, and zoom was not used as a term for video calls before that. It is interesting that that’s the only one on the list that isn’t also a made up word
Über is also not made up 👀
Isn’t google a real thing in numbers.
That’s googol.
No gogol is a number
Where do you draw the line between made up words and non-made up words? It’s not like a supernova explosion creates new words that land on a forming planet so that a billion years later a new sentient species can just pick them up from the ground and start using them.
True, but it has gained additional meaning and uses. Before 2011, you could not “join a zoom”, for example.
The TV series was in 1972
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_(1972_TV_series)?wprov=sfla1
And uber was before 2009.
Not to mention many of these are literally still brand names and have not in fact been ruled generic.
Oh I see now they’ve made the generic ones dark grey.
The Jeep one has kind of fallen out of normal use. Like, I wouldn’t call a Land Rover or a Bronco a jeep.
If anything Jeep on this list is backwards. It was originally a generic term for that military style vehicle made by various manufacturers. Then it became its own thing as the Jeep brand. But then Jeep further broadened their offerings ( Cherokee, Patriot, compass, etc) and the Jeep became a wrangler. But when I say I drive a Jeep, everyone assumes specifically a wrangler.
When I read that my initial thought was more like a military jeep or any boxy army vehicle
My second thought was that one Mercedes jeep but that’s clearly not a jeep brand
That was the original idea I think. With the existence of SUVs that kind of went out the window.
The Mercedes is the G-Wagon. Which is quite well known in pop culture as such.
Well thanks for the name I see rarely mostly on the freeway and every time I see it I’m like “there’s no way a bad guy doesn’t have a convoy of these”
I would have never in a million years guessed the name is g wagon tho
Well, the official name is G-Class (or G-Klasse in German). G-Wagen is a colloquial name. Wagen means vehicle in German, btw., where the G-Class isn’t known as G-Wagen at all.
The G is short for Geländewagen (off road vehicle) btw., so calling it G-Wagen is kinda like calling it an ATM-Machine.
Ah that makes sense
It’s very common in Germany to call off-road vehicles jeeps
Yeah, I thought the word Jeep originally came from the military initials GP - General Purpose vehicle. The generic term 4x4 (four by four) is pretty common in the UK.
Who says “zoom” as a verb? People say “video chat” or, more realistically, “facetime” for all video chats.
I’ve heard a lot of people talk about “zoom meetings” when the meetings are actually held on google meet, or webx.
I’ve used Zoom in previous companies to speak to clients, and have never heard anyone use it as a term for video calls. I have absolutely no idea where this has come from, but it’s definitely not true…
I work in tech. Everyone.
I’ve met a lot of people who do this through my work from home job
Let’s do a zoom meeting can conceivably be on Teams I guess
No one I know would use facetime… That suggests using a phone for a business meeting. Bad angles, shakey image… very unprofessional.
For a business meeting you need a computer which means we’re zooming, regardless of the platform
Yeah, it seems like facetime would be more at risk for becoming generic. If it weren’t for Apple, that is.
Who says “zoom” as a verb?
Zoomers.
Has ‘zoom’ become a generic term for video calling/conferencing? For example are people saying “let’s zoom later on Skype” ?
Might be a thing with zoomers
I’m perhaps the worst zoomer to ask about zoomer stereotypes, but I haven’t noticed my generation doing that. I have noticed my parents doing it though, after the pandemic any app that can do video calls is either “zoom” or “teams” depending on who you ask
Idk. I’m technically a zoomer as well and all video calling services are Skype to me
I hear FaceTime used more generically than Zoom (for mobile video chat)
I’ve heard people say Google zoom call. 🤪
I always hear people say “meets”, “FaceTime”, etc… Zoom is definitely the most popular but I wouldn’t consider a generic term.
Sometimes my boss will use mention “zoom” when scheduling a virtual meeting between us and clients, but we choose which platform we use and most of us don’t use zoom. So its sorta being used like that.
Bo Burnham’s “Welcome To The Internet” already suggested “start a rumor / do a Zoom or / send a death threat to a boomer.”
I had no idea that a lot of those were brand names
That’s why when someone says “they have to protect their IP otherwise they lose it”, they’re full of shit. The bar for losing a trademark is essentially that no one can be reasonably expected to know it was a trademark.
Super Hero is trade marked??? That one was surprising.
No Coke?
Typical exchange in Texas:
Person A: Can I have a coke?
Person B: What kind?
Person A: Dr Pepper
As if Coca-Cola would ever allow that to happen. They’d send death squads against the court that even thought about it.
I’m going to watch a Disney! 😄
Do people really use coke generically? I’ve always thought coke to refer solely to coca-cola. Maybe it’s just a regional thing.
Yeo. Root beer coke, Dr pepper coke, “get me a case of coke” “what type?” “Ginger ale” etc
What’s the generic term in your area?
You just say what you want. If you want to refer to all then it’s soda.
Does soda also refer to lemonades? In my region we call it Kola and Limo :D
No, only carbonated drinks.
You lemonade isn’t carbonated?? Damn
Using “coke” as a generic word for soft drinks is very regional in the US. In a large part of the country you would get a funny look if you referred to some other brand as a coke. The law office that made this is in Colorado, and it looks like they’re solidly in “pop” territory.
When was the last time you heard someone use the term ‘Xerox?’
iirc, it’s used as another word for clone in some 1980’s science fiction.
Arguably it’s a bit dated but I don’t think it’s gone completely the way of the dinosaur.
The legend I’ve heard is that the Xerox company built the first PC, complete with mouse, monitor, printer, and keyboard, but couldn’t figure out how to market it. They let anyone come and see it, and kids like Jobs and Gates stole it for themselves. Maybe in the future, ‘xerox’ will mean 'didn’t know a good thing when you had it." She dated that guy and dumped him right before he won the lottery. What a xerox!
This aptly describes both paper copying and the name applied to it.
Probably in the '90s, early 2000s. Usually it would be a teacher saying they needed to go make a Xerox/some xeroxes. I’m pretty sure some of those schools didn’t actually have a Xerox-brand machine. I think most people say going to make a copy now, and it doesn’t seem to be done nearly as often as it was 10 years ago.
Yup. By the early 00s it was rare to hear someone say xerox something but it was still pretty common in the late 90s. Offices in the military and civilian-military world.
I sometimes call in to an office to use their facilities and Melanie on reception will almost invariably ask me if I’m there to do some “ex a rock sing” (xeroxing) and I say yes and then ask if the “ex a rock” machine is in the usual place. We’ve been laughing at this one joke for over twenty years. Perhaps we should get out more?
I mean the last time I heard it was in Bojack Horseman. They had an episode called “Xerox of a Xerox”
I’ll have to look that one up
Last time I heard it was in a dramatic re-enactment of a deposition where the witness did not know the word “photocopy” and the lawyer was not having it.
It’s the name for photocopy in India. Nobody would know what you mean if you say I need a photocopier.
I am reminded of the scene in the first ‘Dr. Strange’ movie where he goes into an ashram and gets the Wi-Fi password.
I’ve never heard Google, Uber or Zoom used unless it meant the specific company. “Google” became a verb, but I’ve never heard of someone saying they googled something on DuckDuckGo, for example.
“Google it” means look it up on the Internet. My kids don’t use Chrome, they use Google (probably call it that because it’s the homepage of Chrome).
I’ve heard people say they’re going to uber home. They sometimes use Lyft.
And I’ve definitely heard people say they were on a zoom call even when it was Microsoft Teams or Google …what is the Google one called again? I don’t remember anymore because people will say Google zoom call!!
Citing a comment I’ve recently seen, it’s amazing how humanity managed to produce only one generation actually competent with computers.
I don’t know that I agree with that. Before my generation (X) the computer geeks had to flip dip switches to set IRQs. Before that there were punch cards. Before that there were vacuum tubes that needed to be replaced.
We’ve only really ever done what was needed to get our shit working with as little effort as possible. I’ve never used punch cards or changed vacuum tubes.
TBF it’s Google Chrome and it’s owned by Google.
That’s like complaining that someone who drives a Jeep Wrangler calls it a Jeep
Jeep shouldn’t be on this list either, it’s still brand specific
Interesting! Didn’t know they’d become generic terms like that.
A google zoom. (actually its meet)
I use it exactly like that all the time.
nice try, google-lawyer.
You’ve never heard zoom used as a regular word to mean fast? The word itself is older than the program.
Obviously I mean only in the specific context of “a video conference call.”
Vaseline, Velcro, Mace and Styrofoam aren’t generic? The fuck? I didn’t even know those were trademarked names. Vaseline maybe, but the other three are common enough that I was sure they were generic.
Petroleum jelly, hook and loop, pepper spray, and polystyrene.
polystyrene-foam
The one that got me was zipper. What else do you call one?
It was previously commercialized as Lightning Fastener in NA, or hookless fastener in contrast with previous “technology”.
Non-english languages sometimes have other words for it, if they encountered it before the Zipper was widespread. In Spanish we have cremallera and cierre. Old timers say fecho-de-correr or “fecho eclair” in Portuguese, referring to another patent holder Éclair Prestil.
Mmmm…eclairs.
Velcro brand doesn’t want anyone to call the invention Velcro to protect the trademark: https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY
I hope they lose Realtor
I hope the world loses realtors
That’s the only that surprised me, and it’s still protected? How does that one work?
The National Association of Realtors is pretty consistent at insisting anyone not associated with them is a real estate agent not a Realtor.
Really … that is interesting. I don’t know anyone not in the business that 1) knows this and 2) cares.
They have to protect their image!
I’m not in the business. I’ve bought a house but other than that, don’t have any dealings with real estate agents. I don’t really care. But they do, so it’s kinda plastered anywhere Realtor is used (all kinds of marks after the name) and I even vaguely remember TV ads about realtors being better than real estate agents or something.
Realtor?
That’s weirder than Duncan’s claim on Yo-Yo getting rejected on a technicality, ninety-nine years late.
Wait, who owns super hero?
Both Marvel and DC. Look it up on Wikipedia for more details.
How did they both end up owning it? I checked Wikipedia but don’t see where it explains how it happened.
Nevertheless, variations on the term “Super Hero” or “Superhero” are jointly claimed by DC Comics and Marvel Comics as trademarks. Registrations of “Super Hero” marks have been maintained by DC and Marvel since the 1960s, including U.S. Trademark Serial Nos. 72243225 and 73222079.[66] In 2009, the term “Super Heroes” was registered as a typography-independent “descriptive” US trademark co-owned by DC and Marvel.[67] Both DC Comics and Marvel Comics have been assiduous in protecting their rights in the “Super Hero” trademarks in jurisdictions where the registrations are in force, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and including in respect of various goods and services falling outside comic book publications.[68]
I did a search and found this article that goes into more detail. They applied for a joint ownership trademark to basically stop anyone else from using the term super hero in books, movies, games, toys and more, including shoes?! Pretty interesting.
Basically they were like why be dicks to each other when we can be dicks to everyone?
Can’t wait to see the Iron Man vs All Might lawsuit
Wait, are these the dates when the brand that eventually was deemed a “common word” were first trade marked? I was reading this as the years they were deemed common words.
Cause 2011 is WAYYYY too early for zoom to be common. If anything, that would’ve been Skype on 2011. Similar thing for Tupperware and zipper.
Also, wtf was heroin’s common name before being branded heroin? Lol, also, I can’t help but imagine heroin got its name as some kind of “there’s a hero in every needle” marketing campaign.
year the brand name was first introduced.
It says so in the legend. Zoom has been a word for a long time but it now also means “participate in a (video) teleconference”, which is a new meaning directly linked to the zoom software released in 2011. When a word became generic is usually very hard to pinpoint exactly (except for zoom that was 2020)
For heroin: I don’t think there was heroin before the introduction of the heroin brand. Bayer literally invented the substance. (Wikipedia says it was invented 23 years earlier in Britain from morphine, but the inventer didn’t do anything with it so it was reinvented later). It was also not a drug you take to get high, it was an over the counter cough suppressant; no needle or spoon or lighter involved. Wild times for sure…
It was diacetyl morphine before Bayer marketed it. Fun fact; the acetyl groups get cleaved before it binds to a receptor so it’s just plain old morphine again.
Derp, thanks for pointing out the legend. Totally missed it as I gave the thing a once over.
But also, obviously this means heroin’s name must come from “a hero in every pill”
It’s from the German word “heroisch”, which is basically “heroic”. They used it being a homonym for “heroine” to use women heroes or Valkyrie in marketing for a bit, because it’ll save you from that nasty cough.
It didn’t really go by anything before, since it’s not something super easy to make, and so the first people to really make a lot of it was Bayer, and they named it heroin.
Before heroin people had morphine, and heroin had been made as “diamorphine”, but it just wasn’t really a thing.
In the 80’s there was a brand of cough suppressant pills with codeine (prescription only) called Tussigon, as codeine is a an anti-tussive (anti-cough).
They’re still all over the place. It’s the main ingredient of lean.
